Before Helios: A Patchwork of Design

When I joined the Helios Design System team at HashiCorp, design was fragmented. The company’s internal toolkit, Structure, was an inconsistent mix of components, lacking documentation, governance, and accessibility standards.

Designers and engineers were stuck in a cycle of rebuilding, wasting time, and creating mismatched user experiences.

It was clear: we needed a system, not just components.